To find the obsession with snacks weird

I was at primary school in the 70s and we didn't even get a drink with our school lunches.

moise

Yes. The same people then announce they’re doing their food shop for £60 a week for a family of 4. Not a chance. Snacks are EXPENSIVE

crackers and cheese, ham and cheese toastie, cut up fruit, a yoghurt. These are all snacks!

I'm one of those Mums who gives her child a snack even though we live a 5 minute walk from school. Judge me if you will. I do this because she's starving hungry. She had lunch before 12pm and has done a lot of running around afterwards in the playground and concentrated all afternoon until the day ends at 3.30pm. She's only 6. She gobbles up what I bring (usually a banana, sometimes malt loaf) and then often needs more food the minute we get in the door, and only then she settles down happily to play. I do her an early tea too plus sometimes supper as well. She needs it. It is true hunger with her. She's not overweight at all (can see her ribs) and she's really active.

I don't agree with chocolate / sweets / crap after school but my daughter does need food of some kind, and I don't see the issue with it.

It’s a fine balance between the ‘always giving snacks’ and ‘three meals a day nothing in between’ mindset though isn’t it. My parents both grew up poor with big families and so there was not copious amounts of food on offer, so they had no problems with my brother and me snacking whenever we wanted and we both have pretty ‘normal’ attitudes to food and neither of us have ever been overweight.

My SIL was raised in a household where her Mum was obsessed with how much her daughters ate, was obsessed with people who eat ‘too much’ and it was strictly no snacks. One daughter became anorexic and the other two are massively overweight. This obviously is both anecdotal and an extreme example but still I wouldn’t be wary of not allowing any kind of snacking.

I do however think there is a problematic modern day mindset of giving DC snack to keep them quiet. One family who attended one of my DC’s clubs used to give their toddler a full share bag of Cadbury buttons each time to keep them sitting quietly in the pram.

I've never given my now almost 5 year old a snack - although he's had plenty at nursery and school. It took me by surprise when he was a baby/toddler and I met up with other mums and they had multiple tupperware filled with lots of snacks and I had nothing with me. Never crossed my mind. But he always ate well at meal times.

Because they get hungry? At DC's nursery, it is usually something like fruit in the morning and veggies in the afternoon.

I just don't get the outrage.

But I like a snack so I don't actually have a problem with it :D

Yes, nursery snacks are twice a day....
Why?!

I just don't see an issue with that routine. But then mine do go to nursery so it's completely normal.

Blimey some of you are such competetive under eaters.

there is nothing wrong with a healthy snack - some fruit, a yoghurt, some nuts, some crackers etc. if a kid is hungry after school, let them eat!

”in my day we had 3 meals a day and that’s all” - well good for you, but it’s proven that a snack can help boost nutrition if you use wide varieties of food, and being hungry is miserable. Some kids eat lunch at half 12 then don’t eat dinner until 6/7pm - that’s a long time!

This is what we do but snack is a bit of fruit, cracker etc. I don't have a problem with a small snack mid morning and afternoon as that's how I grew up.

It's the ones that constantly offer snacks that I find baffling. I've read people on here who's kids have been at nursery and had a snack/afternoon tea in the afternoon who are then given snacks by their parents on the short drive home and then a full meal after this (I always give a meal after nursery but certainly not a snack on top of this!). Or the ones that offer full meals for snack, I've been out before and people have had full lunchboxes full of snack food for their toddlers and read on here small toddlers and kids being offered bowls of cereal a couple of hours after having their breakfast.

DS finished school at 3:15 today had a banana, some milk, a babybel and mini cheddars then straight back to gymnastics until 5, dinner was at 6, he had lunch at 12:30 and outdoor PE this afternoon. I'd be hungry going from 12:30-6 with a good amount of exercise. He had porridge with nut butter and stewed apple for breakfast, he tells me he had carrot sticks and radishes at snack time this morning at school (🤷‍♀️), lunch was Carribbean chicken curry, rice with kidney beans and veg followed by lemon cake, (school portions are small) and home made Bolognese for dinner with plenty of veg in it and salad on the side.
He's 123 cm and 3st 5 so on the lower end of healthy weight for his age (6). I don't think cutting snacks out is a good idea.

I’m a grazer, I hate feeling overly full and post-prandial after an enormous meal, or even an average sized one.

Are people really 'baffled' by children having snacks mid morning and afternoon? This was always a thing when I was a child (80's) - juice and biscuits for 'elevenses', piece of fruit/ bread and butter/ cake after school, milk and biscuit before bed.

Every training course I've ever been on offers drinks and snacks at the morning and afternoon break. Everyone is different, I'd much rather have smaller meals and top up with a snack than have big meal and feel too full.

I have an adult dc and many parents took a bag of sweets for pick up when they were young. Usually haribo / mix up / bakery item

I don't take one to school but they do have a snack when home. Sometimes fruit or something, sometimes cookie. Whatever they want. They always eat their tea .

One of my DCs was always exhausted and miserable after school (has now moved schools and comes home happy). I took snacks to distract him I suppose. He looked forward to them ( and it was a lot harder to walk home if I forgot). Plus, school lunches were tiny portions and they didn’t get much time to eat it (problem solved when we moved schools).

I know it was a literature reference but I don't get why it's embarrassing that she didn't recognise it?

Not everyone likes Tolkien.

Assuming the children were Tolkien fans 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Yanbu- I’ve been roasted on here though for trying to stop other parents giving (or the PTA selling!) my kids sweets and cakes at home time. As toddlers sure, little snacks ( not adult sized), but by school most should be able to make it home (not met with a two pack of donuts 🍩🍩👀)

Yeah, mine get barely any time to eat.

Because she tried to use it as an example of her Niece and Nephews fat fuck status, but it’s actually a literature reference that went straight over her head in her haste to judge.

I think lunch break in school is different now.

Some of our youngest ones go through at 11.30 and they rush to get out to play so don't eat much and they aren't encouraged to eat more.

I pick my DS up with a snack, and I live 10 mins away from school. I'm not obsessed with snacks. I don't think he'll perish without one, and I don't spend a lot of money on them (usually it's a piece of fruit or jam and bread). I do it because it's easier and more convenient if he eats on the way home, as we have dinner early at 4.30. if he's eating a snack when we get in, after washing hands and taking shoes off and so on, it will be too close to dinner. He also walks home faster with a snack.

Why embarrassing? 😳

Second breakfast is a Tolkien reference, it was eaten by hobbits. Embarrassing for you.